Report Verification Honestly
report-verification-honestly
Summary
Handoffs become risky when verification is overstated, omitted, or blurred with assumptions. Report exactly what ran, what passed or failed, what was not checked, and what risk remains.
Problem
A handoff can imply more confidence than the evidence supports. Phrases like "should work" or broad claims that tests pass are misleading when only a narrow command ran or when checks were skipped.
Preferred Move
Report the checks that actually ran, their outcome, and any important checks that did not run. Tie the verification summary to the changed behavior, not only to compilation or formatting.
Tradeoff
Long logs can bury the useful signal. Summarize the relevant command and result, then include only the failure detail needed for the next person to act.
Agent Instruction
State exactly what verification ran. Mark skipped checks as not run and name the remaining risk
instead of implying unearned confidence.Examples
Bad: the handoff implies broader confidence than the checks earned.
Tests pass.
Good: the handoff names the check and the untested surface.
Ran markdownlint-cli2 "**/*.md"; passed. Did not run rendered-doc checks.